How to Play Castle Combo, a swift, sleek card comboing game.
Watch the Video
Read the Rules
The aim of the game
To win, score the most points, by organising the most complimentary selection of characters in your 3x3 kingdom.
To set up
- Shuffle the grey backed castle cards, place them face down on the table and reveal 3 face up alongside it.
- Do the same with the village deck, placing them in a row underneath.
- Place the messenger token to the right of the village row.
- Give each player 2 keys and 15 gold. Put the rest in a pile nearby.
- The player who last visited a castle begins and play proceeds clockwise.
To play the game
A turn consists of the following actions:
- 1. Spend a key to move the messenger or refresh a row.
- 2. Buy a card from the row the messenger is on.
- 3. Place it in your kingdom and apply its effects.
- 4. Refill the display.
Spending a key is optional. To do so, return one from in front of you to the supply. Then, either move the messenger to the other row, OR discard all 3 cards from the row the messenger is on and draw new ones from the top of the deck.
- You can only spend 1 key per turn.
- Players may view the discard pile at any time.
- If the deck runs dry, shuffle the discard pile to form a new one.
To buy a card, select one of the 3 face up from the row the messenger is on and pay the gold cost located in the top left corner.
Some cards will provide a discount when placed in your kingdom, for example, this one reduces the cost of FUTURE castle cards you buy by 1, this one reduces the cost of village cards, and this one reduces both. If you have multiple discounts, their benefits stack, however, a card can never cost less than 0.
If you can’t, or don’t want to buy a card, you can instead take one and place it face down in your kingdom. Face down cards have no extra benefit, but provide 6 gold and 2 keys when placed.
Once purchased, immediately place the card into your kingdom.
- Your kingdom is a 3x3 grid.
- Your first card can be placed anywhere, future cards must be placed orthogonally adjacent to an existing one, no diagonals.
- Once placed a card cant be moved.
- Some cards score points depending on their placement, so choose wisely!
Once placed, apply the card’s abilities. The effect in the centre happens immediately, the points in the bottom scroll score at the games end.
For example, this card gains you 1 gold per sword icon in your kingdom, this one gives you 2 keys, this one lets all opponents take a coin from the supply and this one lets you put 2 coins from the supply on each card in your kingdom with a purse in its scroll.
- Cards that reward you based on the type of card in your kingdom include themselves
- If a card say’s ‘neighbour’ pick a player to your left or right.
- You can find an explanation of each ability on this handy player aid
Finally, if the card you placed has a messenger icon in its banner, move the messenger either to the village or castle as displayed, then refill any empty spaces with cards from the deck.
In the rare case there aren’t enough cards to refill a row, remove all the remaining cards in that row and place the messenger by the remaining row. The messenger can no longer move, and keys can only be spent to refresh the row.
Game end & scoring
Take it in turns spending keys, buying cards, placing them and scoring their ability until each player has completed their 9 card grid, then scoring begins.
First, where possible, place any leftover gold you have on cards with purses on them. For example this card can hold up to 4 gold.
Then, score each card in your tableau from left to right and top to bottom, based on their scoring scroll and using the aid for reference.
Leftover keys are worth 1 point each. Facedown cards and leftover gold are worth nothing.
The player with the most points wins!
In the case of a tie, the player with the most leftover gold wins, if that’s tied, share the victory.
That’s castle combo… a dinky, thinky little kingdom builder.
Enjoy!